I Want Love
by I-chan Kobayashi
Summary: Satoshi thinks he's found true love, but will he be able to stand the pain of never being acknowledged or loved in return? A darker look into the world of Pokemon, and not a short fic. Be prepared for a long ride. Yaoi.
1. Warnings, Lyrics, etc

I Want Love   
_by I-chan Kobayashi_  
  
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Warnings:   
Shotacon, rape, violence, psychological torment, homosexual content, graphic depictions thereof, and explicit language.

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Japanese-English Name Translations

People:  
Satoshi Watanabe - Ash Ketchum  
Takeshi Mamorishi - Brock Harrison  
Shigeru Ookido - Gary Oak  
Yukinari Ookido - Professor Samuel Oak  
Hanako Watanabe - Delieh Ketchum  
Kasumi Kanshamizu - Misty Waterflower  
Bariyaado - Mr. Mime

*Note: The Japanese last names are made up by me, with the exception of Shigeru and Yukinari's, which is official. I think the English last names are official, but I could be wrong about Misty's and Brock's. All pokemon's Japanese names are official, as well as are all first names unless otherwise noted.

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Places:  
Seikiei League - Indigo League  
Masara Town - Pallet Town  
Tokiwa City - Veridian City  
Nibi City - Pewter City  
Hanada City - Cerulean City  
Kuchiba City - Vermillion City  
Shion Town - Lavender Town  
Tamamushi City - Celadon City  
Yamabuki City - Saffron City  
Sekichiku City - Fushia City  
Guren Town - Cinnabar Island  
Sekiei Kougen - Indigo Plateau

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Special Thanks:  
Sammy, Kaiven and Wannon

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Lyrics:  
I Want Love by Akira Yamaoka

Alright, let's do this.  
1, 2, 3, 4...

I want a cup that overflows with love,  
Although, it's not enough to fill my heart.  
I want a barrel full of love,  
Although, I know, it's not enough to fill my heart.  
I want a river full of love,  
But then, I know, the holes will still remain.  
I need an ocean full of love,  
Although, I know, the holes will still remain.

And this Swiss cheese heart knows  
Only kindness can fill its holes.  
And love can dry my tears  
As pain disappears.  
Yea~ah!

I need a miracle and not someone's charity.  
One drop of love from him and my heart's in ecstasy.  
The high that it's sending me is most likely ending me.  
I need a miracle and not someone's charity now.

Fill up my heart with love.  
Oh, you'd be amazed how little I need from him to heal complete here and now.  
Stirring within me are these feelings I can't ignore.  
I need a miracle and that's what I'm hoping for.

I need a miracle and not someone's charity.  
One drop of love from him and my heart's in ecstasy.  
The high that it's sending me is most likely ending me.  
I need a miracle and not someone's charity now.

Oh baby baby...  
La la la la la la...  
Haa~aa~aa~aaaa...  
My baby...

Anybody's love but his  
Will never fill this space within me now.  
Doctor, give me what I need  
To free my heart from misery.  
Yeah...


	2. Chapter 1

**_I Want Love  
_**By I-chan Kobayshi  
  
_: :Chapter 1: :  
_

'**_R_**emember, Satoshi, it's our little secret...'

Satoshi sighed at the remembered whisper. He snuggled deeper into his pillows, hugging them close for what little comfort they could provide. He inhaled deeply, swearing he could still smell the man on his skin, even after his shower. The boy could still remember the man's strangled cries, both of them trying to be silent in a back room. The man muffling his cries of ecstasy, Satoshi holding in his tears of pain. 

Every time after, after he threw away the condom and zipped his pants back up into place, he would always tell Satoshi the same thing; 'Remember, Satoshi, it's our little secret...' Nothing more, nothing less. Always the same thing. Satoshi knew why, too. For it to get out, that he had been sleeping with a fourteen year old boy for two years, would be catastrophic to the man's reputation. But Satoshi loved him, even though he never said anything special to Satoshi outside of their rushed sex sessions, or even in them. No "I love you"s, no pet names, no "Satoshi-chan", no nothing to make anyone ever suspect they were in more than a casual, though warm, relationship.

But Satoshi knew his mother suspected something, but he couldn't be sure if she knew or not. She had mentioned several times to her son that he was acting rather differently, or walking with a limp. He always brushed it off with a smile, telling her not to worry, that he was tired from staying up too late, that he was just a little stiff from running too much, or that he wasn't getting enough circulation because of the air conditioning blowing cold air. Flimsy excuses, all of them. Even though they both knew he was lying, she let it pass, convinced that if her baby needed her help, he would come to her. 

He often worried if she ever caught sight of the bloodied boxers he would hide in the bottom of his wastebasket after rough visits. Or if she ever noticed the concealer that he stole from her to hide the bite marks on his neck and shoulders or the bruises from where he had been gripped too tightly in the heat of the moment. But she never let on that she knew anything, so Satoshi felt confident in the fact that that she didn't know anything.

He rolled over onto his side, the numbers on the digital clock glaring 1:52. Satoshi sighed again and began to think to himself, knowing he wouldn't be asleep anytime soon.

'I thought... I thought it was supposed to feel good. I thought having him take me would be the best feeling ever. But... it's not. It never is. It always hurts, even when I don't bleed. He... he always tells me how good I make him feel while he's doing it, though.' Satoshi smiled at that. He made him feel good. 'I make him feel good. That's why it doesn't matter if it hurts me. I love him, and he feels good, so I'm satisfied. Is this... is this what love is really like? Did Mom go through this with my dad? She always says how in love with him she was before he died. Did she do anything to make him happy and not think about herself even if she was in pain? She must have... because... This is love. I know it is.'  
  
Before falling asleep, Satoshi whispered softly with a smile on his face to his empty room, "I love you, Ookido Yukinari..."

Downstairs in the living room, Hanako nursed a cup of cooling coffee over paperwork. She worked almost lethargically in the mostly dark room, a tall lamp that emitted a soft light the only source of light save for the muted TV which glared over the forms she was filling out that would allow Satoshi to receive all the benefits of a trainer. Pokemon League registration, PokeCenter youth hostel registration forms, forms for opening an account at Pokemarts and banks, order forms for various pieces of equipment like a special backpack with multiple pockets designed specifically for trainers, a portable stove, a sleeping bag, cooking utensils... She laughed softly at the thought of her Satoshi cooking on his own. He'd probably char instant ramen. All these forms had to be in the mail tomorrow so everything would be in order once Satoshi started his journey at the end of this week. Identification and other cards would have to be sent back for her son to use. She lazily scanned over the forms, checking that everything was filled out completely and correctly and that a check was included in each that needed it. She smiled sadly, putting down her pen and resting her chin in her hands, the cold coffee forgotten on the table. 

'Soon Satoshi-chan will be leaving me... I'll be all alone again. Well, except for you, of course,' she thought as she eyed her only pokeball that sat on the shelf. Her Bariyaado had been the first pokemon she ever received. She had never gone on a pokemon journey, but instead chose to stay in Tamamushi where she was born and go to the local high school and then the university, getting her degree in liberal arts and a minor in both literature and philosophy. 

To earn a living and to pay for her college tuition, she modeled for various companies and acted a bit in small community theatre. Because both her parents died in an airplane crash only one month before she turned 18 and already several months into her college education, she was too old to be placed in foster care and had no financial support outside of herself. She wasn't in dire financial straights, but still, she wasn't as well off as most of the other students were. Hanako blinked and shook herself back into the present, trying to make herself stop reliving the fun times she had had with her friends, the rush of being backstage opening night when the curtain rose, the sense of freedom being a young adult had given her... But her mind also brought up unpleasant memories she didn't want to think about. She began to push the unwelcome thoughts from her head, when a thought struck her. 

'Oh my god... What... what if something like that... or something even worse were to happen to my baby? He's going to be all alone. Young, innocent, naive... He wouldn't suspect a thing.' Hanako made up her mind to make sure that Satoshi's pokemon knew how to defend it's master before she let her precious son out of her sight. And she would be sure to have a talk with him about not leaving his drink or food unattended. 

Although what happened to her wasn't rape, it could have been. It also could have been much worse. She had gotten lucky. If you could call it that. She didn't have to put up with the emotional trauma of rape or the aftermath, she had only slept with her best friend and woke up curled in his arms. It was too embarrassing for both of them and after that to remain friends, and so he was gone from her life. She thanked god she wasn't pregnant after that night, and had continued with her studies until she graduated, met her husband and moved to the small quiet town of Masara. Even with the worry still on the back burner of her mind, she walked over to the picture she kept high on the bookshelf, where she could always see it. 

Reaching up, she took it down and gazed lovingly at it. It was the only picture she had of Satoshi's father, Satoshi, and herself. It was taken shortly after Satoshi was born, the three of them sitting in the middle of the garden Hanako used to keep in the backyard before she had to take care of Satoshi full time. The roses were blooming all around them in a rainbow of red, white, pink, and yellow. She held Satoshi in her lap, who was bundled in a blanket and sleeping peacefully. Both parents smiled lovingly at their baby. Hanako couldn't remember who had taken the picture. But she blessed them in her thoughts every time she saw it. 

It was only a week after it was taken that Satoshi's father had left on a rather late pokemon journey. He said he wanted to be able to protect his family with strong pokemon. They had met at the university and eventually developed a wonderful friendship that turned into something more. Because he had been a student like Hanako, he never had a chance to go on his journey when he was younger. But he had been killed before he could really get started. The first pokemon he caught that he thought was strong enough to protect his family was Bariyaado and he sent it to Hanako as soon as he got to the next Pokemon Center with an excited message filled with "I love you"s and worry over her being alone with the baby. She still had that video message on file. After he was killed a few days after that, what pokemon he had caught legally reverted to Hanako's ownership, but she couldn't stand to see them. They reminded her too much of him. So, instead of keeping them locked up in their pokeballs forever, she set them free, except for the pokemon her husband had specifically sent to her, Bariyaado. She couldn't bare to part with it.

With her treasured pokemon's help, she was able to tend her garden again while Bariyaado played with Satoshi, but she always was there for her baby first. She was worried that seeing Satoshi would remind her of her dead husband and she would become sad whenever she was around him, but she was wrong. Every time he laughed or gurgled or even cried, Hanako knew the most profound happiness in the world. A mother's love. Her husband lived through their baby, so there was no reason to be sad.

But now he was leaving her. Her baby was leaving her, and in a sense, again, so was her husband. She and her baby were going to be totally alone now. He on his journey and she at home. Hanako sighed and placed the photo back on the shelf. Once she was through organizing the forms and stuffing them into envelops, she turned off the TV and the lamp and trudged off to bed, changing into her nightgown. She lay in bed, wondering how she was ever going to get to sleep, the clock glaring 3:04 in the darkness.

"Grandpa, do you dislike Satoshi?"

Yukinari almost spit his coffee out and back into his cup out of shock at the question. 'Dislike... Satoshi...?' He had to repress his laughter as he replied with a question of his own.

"Why on earth would you think that, Shigeru?" The boy shifted in his seat at the kitchen table, absentmindedly stirring his cereal with his spoon.

"Well... I mean, you act... different when he comes over, and you always avoid us. And you always seem to get distant whenever I talk about him. If you don't like him, I... I could stop being his friend..." 

"That's absurd Shigeru! First of all, I think Satoshi is a wonderful boy. Secondly, even if I didn't like him that's no reason for you to discontinue your friendship with him. He's your friend and you like him, right?"

Shigeru nodded meekly.

"Well, then that's all that matters. Friendship is a wonderful thing, Shigeru. Don't ever forget that."

"Yes, sir." Yukinari rolled his eyes at the formality. Ever since his grandson and granddaughter had come to live with him, they insisted on calling him such formal titles. He supposed that was their way of being thankful he had taken them under his care after their parents had died in a car crash several years ago. 'Then again,' he thought, 'it could be the effect of my strict son raising them.' 

"Oh, you know I hate formalities, Shigeru. Call me 'Grandpa' or 'Oji-chan.'"

"Yes, s-I mean, Grandpa." Yukinari just sighed. He would've liked it if Shigeru would call him "oji-chan," since he was half Japanese and Shigeru was 1/8. That's what he had called his 'ji-chan when he was still alive. He never was able to get his grandchildren to quit calling him "sir." 'But I suppose "oji-chan" would be too informal for those two...'

"That's better. So, are you all ready for your pokemon journey?"

"Yes, Grandpa. Everything you ordered for me came in just the other day. My pokeballs, my backpack, my Pokemon League ID card..." He counted off the items on his fingers as he named them. "But, Grandpa, do you really think a car was necessary?"

"Well, I thought it'd be nice not having to walk everywhere. And I've got so much money I really don't know what to do with it." Yukinari shrugged. "I like to spoil my grandkids. It's what we grandparents are supposed to do." 'And besides, this way, I can hire someone trustworthy to be your chauffer and watch over you while you're out of my sight.' 

"B-but a _car_! Grandpa, that's too much!"

"Oh, Shigeru, you worry too much. It's already ordered and waiting to be picked up as soon as I get you a chauffer, so there's no point in worrying about it. What's done is done. Now calm down and eat your breakfast before your toast gets cold and your juice gets warm," Yukinari said as he drained his coffee cup and went to fill it.

"Yes, Grandpa..." He sipped his juice and stirred his cereal some more as Yukinari refilled his coffee cup and sat down at his place at the table next to Shigeru.

"And another reason I bought it for you was that I thought a bike would be rather small and awkward for two people."

"Two people?"

"You were going to invite Satoshi to go on your pokemon journeys together, were you not?"

"Oh... that's right." 

"I take it since you forgot about it, you haven't asked him yet."

"No, I haven't."

"Well, why don't you invite him over to spend the night tonight and you can ask him sometime when he's over." Yukinari suggested as he cleared the table. He paused for a second at Shigeru's almost full bowl of cereal and only half-empty glass of juice. "Are you through?"

"Uh... yes. Thank you."

"You really should be eating more, Shigeru," he admonished as he rinsed the plates and glasses in the sink. "A growing boy like you should have a healthy appetite. What was it I read the other day? Oh yes, 'If you don't eat breakfast, you'll never grow up to be as strong as Godzilla!'"

"Gr-grandpa, were you reading my manga again?"

Yukinari laughed. Shigeru's parents had never allowed him or his sister to read comic books, but now Shigeru loved them. His sister, Mei, who was older by a few years, though, preferred to read classic novels. That's all she ever read. The professor briefly wondered how on earth she carried them all around with her on her pokemon journey with only a backpack. As fast as she read, she'd need several dozen a year. 

He had made the mistake of telling Mei he was ordering a car for her before he actually did and she absolutely refused the gift. He had gotten smarter by ordering the car before he told Shigeru about it and only told his grandson after it was too late to cancel the order. He didn't leave Shigeru out of the choosing process, though. He had asked the boy the day before he ordered it what his favorite color was in an off-hand manner and so he got a red car as per Shigeru's reply. He loaded down Mei with tubes of pepper spray and a small dagger before she left, just to be safe, but she had taken karate for years, so he wasn't worried too much about her. She had seen it on TV one night when she and Shigeru had first moved in with him and was determined to learn it after that. Still, she was a young girl all alone in the world...even if she was a black belt in Kung Fu. He sat down at the table again, still laughing slightly.

"Yes, I rather like your collection, Shigeru. I especially like that one author... oh what _is_ their name...? You know, they wrote the one where that quote I just said came from... _Special Guard Ducklion?_ Something like that, isn't it?"

Shigeru groaned despite himself at his grandfather's butchering of the title. He wasn't sure if the old man did it on accident or to make Shigeru talk about his interests more. The boy never really did, except when it came to pokemon. His parents were too strict to allow much other interests and now that he liked comics, he felt guilty despite himself.

"_Campus Guard Duklyon, _Grandpa."

"Ah, yes, that's the one. Now what's the author's name again?"

"CLAMP, Grandpa."

"All capitals, right?" Yukinari was eager to show off what he did know about Shigeru's pastime.

"Er... yes, that's right. They're a group of four female artists."

"Why doesn't that surprise me? Only women could create something so aesthetically pleasing. Men don't have that knack for perfection like they do."

Shigeru just nodded. He wasn't about to mention the anthology he had bought on accident one day while shopping for manga a couple of months ago. All he could read on the cover was "BY MEN, FOR MEN!" in large capital letters. The rest was mostly in Japanese with random English thrown in here and there, and although he was part Japanese, Shigeru had never bothered to learn the language. When he got home and began to read it, or rather look at the pictures and try to guess the story as he did with the mangas he bought in Japanese, he understood why the clerk of the small Oriental market had looked at him rather oddly and then chuckled as she checked him out. The art was beautifully drawn with lovely details, but the actual contents made Shigeru blush furiously and slam the publication shut. Those were men...! Doing... doing _things_ to other men! Hell would freeze over before he would show _that_ to his grandfather, much less tell him what he did later that night while he looked at the pictures.

He felt a hot blush creep across his cheeks as he realized his grandfather was still talking.

"...ought to call Satoshi soon so he can get ready and come over about midday and have lunch with us and- Shigeru! You look flushed! Do you feel ill? Do you have a fever?"

Shigeru batted his concerned grandfather's hand away from his forehead, shaking his head.

"No, I'm fine. I just feel a little hot is all. Would it be alright if I turned the air conditioning down a bit?"

"I think you'd better. You look like you're roasting!"

Shigeru ducked his head slightly to hide his blush as he got up from the table to go to the thermostat, tightening the tie on his blue robe he had on over his purple pajamas as he did so.

"Maybe you ought to take a cool shower, too, before you get dressed. To cool you off."  


Shigeru panicked slightly as he heard his grandfather's voice come from the other room. Did he know the real reason that he was blushing? No, the robe would hide any bulge he was sporting. He could have sworn he heard a slight teasing tone to the older man's voice, though... 'No, that's silly,' he thought as he went upstairs to shower and change among other things, his grandfather still sitting at the kitchen table where unbeknownst to Shigeru, he hid a grin behind his coffee mug as he sipped the bitter caffeine.

Hanako rushed inside from her gardening as she heard the telephone ring. She had been planting a new batch of flowers: yellow jonquils, orange mocks, yellow marigolds, anemones that were orange with a hint of pink, for variety, and pale yellow oleanders in one of what she called her "warm color" flower beds. She had several flower beds in her garden, each with a color scheme. Some had cool color schemes with blue and purple or dark red, while others had warm colors with oranges, yellows and the like, and a third type was a neutral color scheme, with colors like pinks and whites or extremely pale colors. The colors of the beds changed in rainbow gradient surrounding the walkways that were soft dirt and wood chips. These were her outer beds. In the center of her garden there was a gazebo surrounded by her rose bushes. The rose bushes' outer edges were arranged in a circular pattern, while the outer beds made the whole garden into a general square shape, keeping a path open for walking in between the circular edges of the rose beds and out of the garden into the yard.

"Hello, Watanabe residence." She wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her gloved hand and nearly knocked her sun hat off as she picked up the cordless phone. 

"Hello, Mrs. Watanabe. It's Shigeru." Hanako smiled at hearing Shigeru's voice. He was Satoshi's best friend. They played together practically everyday. 'Well,' she thought to herself, 'I suppose "playing" isn't the correct term anymore. They're both teenagers now, so I guess they'd call it "hanging out."'

"Oh, good morning Shigeru! It is still morning, isn't it? I've been working out back in the garden and I've lost all sense of time." She glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Oh, my! Is it 11:30 already? I better get Satoshi up. You wanted to speak to him, right?"  


"Well, yes, but if he's sleeping you don't have to..." But she cut him off.

"Don't worry about it, Shigeru. He needs to get up and this gives me an excuse to do it. Hold on just a minute."  
  
"Well, alright..." Hanako went upstairs, carrying the phone at her side. She opened the door to her son's room, letting a little light inside. Even though Satoshi's room had windows, he had heavy curtains to prevent unwanted sunlight from getting in which he frequently kept closed.

"Satoshi-chan..." Hanako walked over to the bed and sat down on it next to her son's sleeping form. "Satoshi-chan..." She reached out to gently shake him, but stopped when she heard him moaning. 'Ah, he must be waking up.' She smiled and was about to tell him that Shigeru was on the phone when a sleepy murmur stopped her cold.

"Yukinari... mine..."

Hanako's mouth opened and closed several times in shock and she dropped the phone which bounced off the bed and onto the wooden floor as Satoshi rolled over in his bed, hugging his pillows. She must have heard wrong. That couldn't be right. But... that would explain a lot. No, it would explain everything. His limps, his dazed expressions, the painkillers he demanded without telling her where or why he hurt... 'He's been traumatized and...' She couldn't even bear to think it. That couldn't happen to her Satoshi. It just couldn't... 

'Wait, wait, wait,' she chastised herself after a moment. 'This is Dr. Ookido. He's a good man. He would never do anything like that to my Satoshi. And when Satoshi goes over to his house, he and Shigeru are being tutored by Dr. Ookido or he and Shigeru are just spending time with each other. My baby's clumsy, he falls a lot. That's why he limps sometimes. And he's a growing boy with growing pains. That's why he wants painkillers. He must have been dreaming that Dr. Ookido had taken away something from him while he was supposed to be studying. Yes, that must be it.' Happy with her rationalization, she snapped out of her daze when she heard Shigeru calling her name from the phone on the floor. 

As a friend of Yukinari's she had to rationalize it. As a mother she had to rationalize it. But most of all she had to rationalize it because she'd never allow such a thing to happen to Satoshi. Having such a horrible thing happen would destroy him and as a mother, she couldn't see her baby harmed so.

"Mrs. Watanabe? Mrs. Watanabe? Are you there? Mrs. Watanabe?" Shigeru's voice came from the phone on the floor. Hanako picked it up and spoke into the receiver.

"Yes, I'm here Shigeru. I just dropped the phone accidentally. Hold on just a second."

On his end of the phone, Shigeru just blinked. 'Man, all the adults sure are acting weird today... First Grandpa and now Mrs. Watanabe...'

Hanako leaned over and shook Satoshi slightly by the shoulder. 

"Satoshi-chan, wake up. Shigeru's on the phone for you." Satoshi lazily blinked his eyes half-open and rubbed the sleep out of them as he woke up under his mother's gentle prodding. 

"Phone...? Shigeru?" Satoshi mumbled groggily and yawned.

"Here you go, Satoshi-chan. Bring the phone down when you're done, it's time to get up anyway," his mother said, handing him the phone. She kissed him on the forehead and went downstairs, closing his bedroom door behind her.

"Mph." Satoshi held the phone to his ear as he buried himself into his pillows to hide from what little light his thick curtains let in. His "Hello?" came out more like "Melow?"

"Good morning, sleepy head. If it wasn't almost noon already I'd feel bad that your mom got you up on my account," Shigeru grinned.

"Oh. Don' worry 'bout it, Shigeru... 'mup. What's up?" Satoshi's voice was still full of sleep and Shigeru wasn't convinced he was awake yet. He didn't catch the playful, teasing tone in Shigeru's voice or even take the chance to make the horrible pun of "besides me" after asking what was up. Satoshi loved to make bad puns when the chance arose. Definitely asleep.

"Well, I wanted to know if you'd like to come over and have lunch with me and Grandpa. Since we'll be going on our Pokemon journeys soon, I thought we should discuss our plans and stuff."

"Mmhmm... plans... stuff... good..."

"Oh, come on Satoshi! Wake up!"

"Mmhmm..." Shigeru just sighed.

"Well, anyway, come over to my house around 12:30 and we can have lunch and then you can spend the night if you want."

"Night... gotcha..." Shigeru sighed again. It was time to use his last resort.

"Satoshi! We have food for you!" He yelled, with emphasis on "food." If there was one thing Satoshi loved more than sleeping, albeit less than pokemon, it was food. And besides, even if he didn't wake up with the promise of food, the yelling in his ear ought to do the trick.

Satoshi yelped as he fell out of bed, tangled in his sheets and comforter. 

"Alright, I'm up! I'm up! I get it! 12:30! Lunch! Spend the night!" Shigeru just laughed.

"Alright, now be a good boy and get ready. Don't be late or we won't save you any. See ya." And with that Shigeru hung up, chuckling slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..."

Satoshi yawned, taking his deep red pajama shirt off, his nipples hardening in the cool air and he shivered. 'Why am I up so _early?_' he grumbled in his head, slightly annoyed. 'I only got... well, I got to sleep about two... and it's,' he glanced at the clock, 'eleven thirty now, so...' As his sleepy mind calculated how much sleep he got, he absent-mindedly stripped off his pajama pants.

"What!? I can't believe I only got nine and a half hours of sleep!" Angrily, he stomped naked over to his dresser, the semi-erection most teenage boys found upon waking bouncing and slapping his stomach as he marched violently. He ignored it and pulled out an outfit, slamming the drawers shut.

'Well,' he thought happily as he pulled on a pair of boxers. 'Getting up this early means I can have lunch _and_ dinner with Yukinari! And Shigeru, of course... But spending the night... that means...' He winced, zipped up his jeans and buttoned them. 'Oh! But because we'll be at his house and not the lab, maybe... maybe he'll hold me afterwards and maybe... just maybe... he'll let me sleep in his arms.' Satoshi was so excited at the thought he felt positively dizzy, the blood pumping in his face furiously. He pulled a T-shirt over his head, the black going nicely with the blue. Pulling on a pair of socks and throwing on his sneakers, he grabbed the phone and went downstairs.

"Mama!" he called, setting the phone in the cradle to charge. There was no answer, but after a moment he heard the water running in his mother's bathroom. 'She must be washing up. She did say she was going to be working in the garden today.'

Satoshi went upstairs again, grabbing the few toiletries he'd need for the one night stay and a change of clothes. He stuffed them in a bag and went to the door to his mother's room when he didn't hear the water any longer, keeping the bag behind his back.

"Mama?"

"Come in, Satoshi-chan." He stepped into the large white room.

"Hi, Mama." It was obvious she had just taken a shower. She was sitting at her large dressing table at the foot of her bed wearing her pale pink robe, slowly combing the tangles out of her wet hair. She smiled at him warmly in the mirror and continued to detangle her hair.

"Good morning, Satoshi-chan. I'm sorry I woke you. What did Shigeru want?"

"Oh, that's ok... He wanted to know if I could come over to have lunch and spend the night with him and Dr. Ookido. Is that ok?"

Satoshi saw his mother start a moment almost. She suddenly stopped her meticulous combing and her smile faltered for a brief second. He blinked, wondering what was wrong with her, but she resumed her happy demeanor, turned to him and said,

"Of course, Satoshi-chan. Do you have everything you'll need?"

"Yes, Mama," Satoshi grinned as he pulled out his bag from behind his back.

"Well, have a good time then," she said as she rose from the vanity and walked over to him, hugging him and kissing his cheek. She walked with him downstairs through the house and to the front door. "What time should I expect you tomorrow?"

He thought for a moment.

"I guess about four in the afternoon. That'll give me time to have lunch over there and do stuff with Shigeru and still be home for dinner."

"Alright, Satoshi-chan," she smiled. "See you at four."

He shouted goodbye over his shoulder as he ran off, Hanako watching him with an unwavering diligent eye only a mother could have until he disappeared from sight.


End file.
